Washington state marchers protest Trump’s “anti-people” offensive

Tim Wheeler/PW

PORT TOWNSEND, Washington – Marching to the beat of a Dixieland jazz band, 600 people demonstrated through this city on Jan.18 in the Olympic Peninsula’s version of the “People’s March” that turned out tens of thousands of protesters in Washington D.C. and across the nation. Here, they carried signs such as “Trump-Musk, Keep Your Greedy Hands off My Medicare.”

The march took place on the eve of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, Monday, Jan. 20, and the eve of the presidential inauguration. Many called it a “coronation” of convicted felon Donald Trump.

Hundreds of protesters marched holding signs like “No Human is Illegal,” “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights,” and “My Heart Breaks for Gaza.” Most were residents of this picturesque Victorian city, but hundreds more traveled from throughout Jefferson County. Clallam County residents carpooled to join the march.

Prominent was a banner, “JCIRA,” or Jefferson County Immigration Rights Advocates. Scores of Latino immigrants marched.

A contingent of PSARA—Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action—active in defense of traditional Medicare and Social Security marched with their banner. Hundreds were mobilized by the Democratic Party of both Jefferson and Clallam counties.

Fled from his home

One marcher, Gerry Daley, even fled from his home in Pacific Palisades, California, destroyed in the still-raging wildfires. A lifelong union organizer, Daley said he and his wife had been given shelter by in-laws in Port Townsend. “It’s still too early. We don’t know when our home will be rebuilt,” he told this reporter.

Port Townsend Mayor David Faber welcomed the crowd at Pope Park on the waterfront and read a City Proclamation, making Jan.18 the first annual “People’s March Day.” This garnered excited cheers from the crowd.

Faber said it is a grim time in America. He recalled a conversation he had 20 years ago with folksinger Utah Phillips, who urged him not to focus on the “Big Picture” but instead on smaller, more local issues, and if you build movements at that level, soon majority movements will grow to fight to end the war in Vietnam and racist segregation.

Walter McQuillen, hereditary chief of the Makah tribe, chanted a blessing for the rally. The tribes, he said, still face the “doctrine of discovery” in which European settlers “discovered” North America and claimed it as their own. It includes nearby “Indian Island,” the sacred land of the Pacific Northwest Indians, now a U.S. Navy weapons depot used to export bombs and missiles to Israel, for example, used in the 15-month Israeli war on Gaza.

Angela Gyurko, President of the Jefferson County League of Women Voters (LWV), said many vital issues are not partisan issues but have been deliberately politicized to divide the community. One aim, she said, is to isolate and intimidate LWV members. “But we will not be silent! Be an agent of change. Disengage from the oligarchs. They tell us we must buy more to be happy!” The crowd erupted in applause.

Newly elected Washington State Sen. Mike Chapman, a former Border Patrol officer in Port Angeles, praised JCIRA for defending immigrant rights in the face of Trump’s threat to deport as many as 22 million immigrants. “Something is wrong with the Republican Party,” Chapman continued. He quoted the widely respected former Washington Governor Dan Evans, a Republican, that the U.S. should remain a sanctuary for all “refugees” around the world.

Avriana Sixtos, a JCIRA Board Member, spoke in Spanish, translated by Natalia Duran, JCIRA Outreach Coordinator. “If they are going to put a label on us, it should say we are not afraid to do a good job…We are hard workers.” Natalia Duran then added her own comments: “Why did I decide to emigrate? Look around you. For better living conditions. To put food on the table. All the results of hard work: food, housing, medical care, social security.”

Two young women students at Port Townsend High School spoke. Tallulah Sebastian praised the grassroots get-out-the-vote effort against ballot initiative 2117 sponsored by hedge-fund millionaire Brian Heywood and the Republican Party.  “This initiative, 2117, would have got rid of the Climate Commitment Act, but Washington voters said NO!” she said as the crowd applauded.

Hilina Taylor-Lenz spoke of the struggle to block real estate developers who seek to build houses in a wooded area within the Cappy Trail, a popular hiking trail in Port Townsend. “We will gain a sense of power by making changes right here in our own community,” she said. If the people succeed in defending Cappy Trail, “our entire community will benefit,” she said.

As the crowd was about to disperse, Gerry Daley asked loudly, “Is anybody here from the labor movement?” Several voices spoke up from union members in the crowd. “Reach out to labor! They know how to fight,” Daley said.

We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!

---

CONTRIBUTOR

Tim Wheeler

Tim Wheeler has written over 10,000 news reports, exposés, op-eds, and commentaries in his half-century as a journalist for the Worker, Daily World, and People’s World. Tim also served as editor of the People’s Weekly World newspaper.  His book News for the 99% is a selection of his writings over the last 50 years representing a history of the nation and the world from a working-class point of view. After residing in Baltimore for many years, Tim now lives in Sequim, Wash.